raman and sem edx analysis: the case of dei in romaapps.thermoscientific.com/media/sid/europe...

Dr. Marco MalagodiDr.ssa Elena BassoLaboratorio Arvedi, Università degli Studi di Pavia, marco.malagodi@unipv.it

Dr. Mauro La RussaDr.ssa Donatella BarcaDip. di Scienze della Terra , Università della Calabria, mlarussa@unical.it

in cooperation with

Raman and SEM‐EDX analysis: The case of  “Villa dei Quintili” in Roma

Villa dei Quintili: this complex was built inthe second half of the 2nd century A.D., andwas expanded by the Emperor Commodo.The most impressive part comprises themanor and the servants’ quarter: a circularbuilding, several rooms and the big thermalbaths (i.e. calidarium and frigidarium), withwide windows and decorated withpolychrome marbles.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SKETCH

100 m

The analyzed findings:• Fragments of frescos• Mosaic glass tesserae

THE ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUESNON INVASIVE ANALYSES MICROINVASIVE ANALYSES

Micro‐Raman SEM‐EDSLA‐ICP‐MS

7 mm

MOSAIC GLASS TESSERAE

FRAGMENTS OF FRESCOS4 cm

THE FRAGMENTS OF FRESCOS: THE RED COLOUR

RED PIGMENT ON FRESCO

CINNABAR

CALCITE

Decorative mural painting from the inner of a manor’s room.The pigment, identified with the micro‐Raman technique,corresponds to the mercuric sulfide (cinnabar), as itcompletely overlaps the reference spectrum (in red). Noticealso the presence of calcium carbonate (calcite), used asinorganic medium in the fresco technique.

THE GLASS OF THE MOSAIC TESSERAE

LA‐ICP‐MSD2 H1ppm ppm

Ti 465.25 742.83Mn 1562.62 2707.24Fe 1972.14 15363.52Co 3.25 12.66Cu 31.44 7572.06Ni 6.71 21.46Zn 27.69 185.81As 33.49 47.54Rb 9.56 6.45Sr 369.14 555.26Zr 44.17 56.85Ag 0.91 10.22Cd 2.87 113.33Sn 6.69 1647.96Sb 4415.09 4220.70Ba 180.99 221.56Pb 177.63 88807.41

SEM‐EDSD2 H1wt% wt%

SiO2 70.15 56.46Al2O3 2.70 2.36MgO 0.49 2.15CaO 5.38 7.22Na2O 18.09 12.07FeO 0.45 2.87K2O 0.55 1.87Cl2O 1.50 1.19CuO n.d. 1.20PbO2 n.d. 11.71

The Raman spectra on the mosaic tesserae evidenced the presence of two difference kind ofglass. As an example, we report the spectra of the transparent glass (D2) and that of the red‐coloured glass (H1).

D2

H1

The chemical data obtained by SEM‐EDS and LA‐ICP‐MS techniquesfurther support the compositionaldifferences of these glasses.